Featured articles
Viva the melons!
Wow! I love melons…
No matter if it is a Charentais, Galia, Honeydew or watermelon I and can’t get enough of them!
The nice aroma of a ripen Charentais, the taste of a sweet Galia or the freshness of watermelon are just things that make the summer worth it.
Melon slices
You don’t need to ask me twice if I want some melon. For the last 3 months I have been eating one melon a day at least! I can’t believe that in a few weeks time, they will become hard to find. Sometimes I wish it would be possible to freeze melons so that I could eat them all year long!
Melons are not something I liked when I was a child, but I developed a taste for them with time. In the contrary my 3 1/2 years old son enjoys it as much as I do.
I eat them in salads, as an appetizer with ham, as a dessert with mint and even in smoothies. When I lived in France my dad used to serve melons with Pineau des Charentes.
Melons are a great source of vitamins A & C, potassium and fiber.
Primagusto watermelons from Italy
How many melons are out there?
There are 2 real categories:
- Muskmelons
- Watermelons (citrulis vulagaris)
The muskmelons have many varieties:
- Cantaloupe – cucumis melo
- American cantaloupe
- Galia
- Charentais
- Wintermelons like the Santa Claus
- Honeydew
- Juan Canari
- Casaba
- Persian melons
……..
Northern America, Central America, Iran and Turkey produce many types of muskmelons. For Europeans cantaloupes from America are not real cantaloupes. It is often called muskmelon. A muskmelon has a different skin than a cantaloupe from Europe. It looks brown, has a harder shell and is also called Rockmelon.
About watermelons:
I am mainly a fan of Charentais, but I aslo eat a lot of watermelons because it is very refreshing.
Watermelons have more than 1200 varieties. Fifty are grown in the United States. They came to Egypt from Africa. Nowdays a large grower of watermelon is China. In America, the states which grow the most watermelons are Georgia, Arizona and Texas. I remember when I lived in Georgia, I could not believe how many watermelons were in the supermarkets. 3 billion are bought in America each year.
watermelon cut in half
Seedless watermelons do have seeds! The seeds are just white instead of black and smaller than usual.
You can cut it and keep it refrigerated for up to one week. It has less calories than other melons.
The largest watermelon ever produced was 255 pounds!
About Charentais:
Like I said, my favorite melon is Charentais cantaloupe maybe because that is what I had the most when I lived in France. I come from the region of Poitou Charentes, so all summer long you can find good quality melons from the region and at a good price.
The cantaloupe from Cavaillon in the South of France (Midi or Provence) is delicious.
Also Charentais is cultivated in Languedoc Roussillon, Charentes and Touraine.
Charentais cantaloup
300,000 tonnes are produced in France.
When it is ready to eat, it has about 12% sugar. If not ripe, you can leave at room temperature for up to 4 days. Then you can refrigerate until you eat it. Check the stem and see how it smells. It is also a good sign if it is heavy.
There are also some Charentais in Italy.
Galia melons come mainly from Spain, Canary Islands, Maroco and Israel.
Galia melon with feta
Where do melons come from?
Melons came from the Orient thousands of years before Christ. It went from Egypt to Greece and then to Rome.
One knows that the Egyptians grew it. Even King Tut had some seeds found on his tomb in the Valley of the kings in Thebes.
Monks went to Armenia and returned to Italy with seeds. They planted it near Rome in their monastery of Cantaluppo.
The melon arrived in France with King Charles VIII in the 15th century and he said he returned with “cantaloupes”.
America waited a bit longer to have melons. It is only with Christopher Columbus that the Americans were introduced to melons.
Melon balls with herbs and feta dices
How can you use melons?
There is so much you can do, but here are a few ideas:
- cut a Charentais in two 4 and lay one thin slice of ham on each. You can use ham from the Grisons, Prosciutto, Parma or Serrano.
- fry it with other fruits for a dessert or a vegetable dish
- use it with feta, goat and mozzarella cheese
- sprinkle a salad dressing on it with lemon and herbs
- use herbs like basilicum, herbs of provence, rosemary, thymian
- cut Charentais in half and put a bit of Pineau des Charentes, Madeira or Marsala wines
- in dessert with rasberries and mint with a lemon and sugar sauce.
Watermelon with green leaves and feta cheese
Tipps:
- When melon is cut and left at room temperature, only keep from 2-4 hours.
- It is best to wash the outside of the melon before cutting.
- Charentais melon when ripe, can be kept 2-6 days in the fridge.
So, enjoy Melopepo, while it is still the season!
